Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Green tea in a plastic bottle—say it ain't so!

Here's a Korean TV commercial for a bottled ready-to-drink green tea. The commercial is obviously aimed at young people, and it reminds me of what Mr. Nagata said about the sad trend among young people in Japan today to see green tea as something that you buy in a bottle, not something you brew yourself.

Notice that the plastic bottle in commercial is colored to make the tea look ultra-green. Another thing that the commercial doesn't tell you is that a lot of the polyphenols in green tea start to break down within a few hours of brewing, so that by the time that bottle of tea reaches you, it's lost of lot of its health-promoting "punch".

So don't succumb to the temptation of bottled tea—it's healthier to brew your own. The whole tea-brewing process is also an excellent opportunity to take a step back and relax. Green tea isn't just a drink; it's an experience.